Thirteen Years Is a Long Time in Games
GTA V came out on September 17, 2013, on the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. I was a different person then, and so was the games industry. Smartphones were still new. Streaming was a novelty. Nobody had heard of a battle royale. And Rockstar released a game with three playable protagonists, a map the size of a small county, and a story about three criminals trying to get out of the life — and it became the second best-selling game in history, with more than 200 million copies sold.
GTA VI arrives on November 19, 2026, on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S. Thirteen years later. A different console generation — actually, two generations later. A different world. And almost everything about the game has changed. Not tweaked. Changed.
I've spent the last decade playing GTA V — the story, the heists, Online, all of it — and I've spent the last three years studying every frame of GTA VI's trailers. This is the comparison I wish I'd had: not a spec sheet, but an honest look at what actually changed, what stayed the same, and what it all means for the game we're about to play.
Three Protagonists Become Two — and the Story Gets Personal
The biggest structural change is the one everyone talks about first. GTA V gave you three protagonists — Michael, Franklin and Trevor — each with their own life, their own missions, and their own reasons for being a criminal. You could switch between them almost at will, and the game's signature trick was cutting between three stories that collided in the heists.
GTA VI gives you two: Lucia Caminos and Jason Duval. And they're not three separate people who happen to know each other. They're a couple. A criminal duo in the style of Bonnie and Clyde, trying to build a better life and failing to escape the world that keeps pulling them back in.
I've gone back and forth on whether two is better than three, and here's where I've landed: three protagonists gave GTA V breadth, but it cost the game depth. Franklin, especially, felt underused — his story never quite got the weight that Michael's and Trevor's did. Two protagonists, bound together by a relationship, means every mission matters to both of them. The switching is different too: previews describe mandatory switching at narrative beats, with the other character controlled by AI while you're playing one of them, rather than GTA V's free switching. That's a trade-off. You lose freedom, but you gain a story that actually has stakes for both leads.
And then there's Lucia herself — the first playable female protagonist in a mainline GTA game. That's not a footnote. That's a quarter-century of this series finally telling a story from a woman's perspective, and everything in the trailers suggests Rockstar is taking that seriously. Lucia isn't a sidekick. She's the first face of the game. Jason is her partner, not her boss. That changes the dynamic of every scene they're in together.
The story is estimated at 50 to 65 hours — nearly double GTA V's roughly 31-hour main story — structured in three acts across rural and urban Leonida. Longer doesn't always mean better, but in this case the extra time is going somewhere: into a relationship, not just a plot.
Los Santos Was a City. Leonida Is a State.
GTA V's map was Los Santos and Blaine County — one big city, a desert, some mountains, and the countryside in between. It was enormous for 2013, and it still holds up remarkably well. But it was, fundamentally, one city and its surroundings.
GTA VI's map is the state of Leonida — Rockstar's Florida — with six named regions: Vice City, the Leonida Keys, Grassrivers, Port Gellhorn, Ambrosia, and Mount Kalaga National Park. Rockstar says the landmass is nearly as large as GTA IV, GTA V and Red Dead Redemption 2 combined, and roughly twice the size of GTA V alone. Community estimates put it at 1.5 to 2 times GTA V, or somewhere around 125 to 160 square kilometres.
But the size isn't the interesting part. The variety is. GTA V's map had a city, a desert, and mountains. Leonida has a neon metropolis, a tropical island chain, a living swamp, a decaying port town, a sugar belt, and a national park with actual elevation. That's not just more map. That's more kinds of map. And each kind of place suggests a different kind of gameplay — boats in the Keys, airboats in the swamps, off-road driving in the mountains, street crime in the city.
The other change is density. GTA V's Los Santos was big but, in places, strangely empty — whole blocks that were scenery rather than space. Rockstar has spent years talking about interiors, and the rumour mill claims hundreds of enterable buildings in Leonida. That number is unconfirmed, and I wouldn't repeat it as fact. But the direction is clear: a world you can walk into, not just drive past.
The Technology Gap: From 2013 to 2026
Here's where the thirteen years really show. GTA V was built for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 — machines with 512MB of RAM, spinning hard drives, and loading times that could last minutes. It was a miracle of engineering for its time, and it shows its age every time you play it now.
GTA VI is built exclusively for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S — machines with high-speed SSDs, hardware ray tracing, and enough power to do things GTA V could never attempt. The trailers were captured entirely in-game on a PS5, and the difference is visible in every frame.
Let me get specific, because the details are genuinely exciting. The RAGE engine in GTA VI uses ray-traced global illumination — realistic lighting and reflections across puddles, windows, and rearview mirrors. Character models use strand-based hair simulation, more accurate muscle deformation, and sweat that appears as individual rolling beads. Sand and dirt stick to characters' skin depending on where they've been. Commercial airliners are rendered at a much larger, more realistic scale than GTA V's toy-like planes. The crowds are denser. The draw distances are longer. The weather is volumetric — storms that actually feel like storms.
But the technology change I care about most isn't graphical. It's the SSD. GTA V's loading times shaped how the game was designed — missions were structured around drives, because drives hid loading. An SSD means Rockstar can cut between locations instantly, load interiors without a pause, and build a world that doesn't need to disguise its seams. That's a design freedom GTA V never had, and I think it's going to change how the game feels to play more than any lighting effect.
Systems: Wanted Stars, Physics, and a World That Fights Back
GTA V's systems were revolutionary in 2013 and familiar by 2026. Five-star wanted system. Cover-based shooting. A skill system for each character. Vehicle theft and customisation. It all worked, and it all became the template every open-world game copied.
GTA VI keeps the template and rebuilds most of it. The wanted system is reportedly going to six stars, with more detailed tracking — police who identify you by appearance and vehicle, not just by a circle on the map, and disguise-based evasion. There's a reported Criminal Profile system that tracks your behaviour over time. Combat adds prone and crawl mechanics, context-sensitive takedowns, improved blind-fire, and enemies who react dynamically to threat levels. Physics get weight-based vehicle handling — trucks that genuinely feel heavy, electric vehicles that handle differently from combustion, airboats for the swamps, and personal submersibles for deep water. Armour tiers degrade under fire.
The other system change is quieter but just as important: character progression. GTA V had skills and special abilities — Franklin's driving, Michael's slow-motion shooting, Trevor's rage. GTA VI's previews describe expanded fitness and relationship systems: bodies that respond to eating and exercise, and a relationship between the two leads that develops as you play. That's not a skill tree. That's a life system. And it's the kind of thing that only makes sense in a game with two protagonists who actually live together.
The Price of Progress: $60 Then, $80 Now
We can't talk about what changed without talking about the price. GTA V launched at $60 in 2013 — about $85 in today's money. GTA VI launches at $80 for the Standard Edition and $100 for the Ultimate Edition. In real terms, GTA VI is actually cheaper than GTA V was. But in the terms that matter — the number on the receipt — it's $20 more, and it's the game that makes $80 the new standard for the entire industry.
That's the trade-off of thirteen years. The game is bigger, the technology is better, the world is denser, and the price went up with it.
What Didn't Change — and Why That Matters
For all the changes, some things about GTA haven't moved at all, and I think that's worth saying.
Here's my honest bottom line. GTA V is one of the greatest games ever made, and it earned that status over a decade of updates, re-releases, and a second life in Online that nobody predicted. GTA VI doesn't have a decade yet. It has trailers, a release date, and expectations no game has ever carried.
Conclusion
Thirteen years changed almost everything. Three protagonists became two, and the story became a relationship instead of a collision. One city became a whole state, roughly twice the size, with six regions instead of one metropolitan area. The technology leapt two console generations, from 512MB of RAM to ray tracing and SSDs. The systems got deeper — six wanted stars, weight-based physics, bodies that change, a world with memory. And the price went from $60 to $80, making GTA VI the game that cements the new standard. What didn't change is the ambition, the humour, and the wait. GTA V earned its place over a decade. GTA VI has one night — November 19, 2026 — to start earning its own. I've waited thirteen years. I'm ready to find out if it was worth it.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many protagonists are in GTA VI vs GTA V?
GTA V has three — Michael, Franklin and Trevor. GTA VI has two — Lucia Caminos and Jason Duval, a criminal couple. Lucia is the first playable female protagonist in a mainline GTA game.
Is the GTA VI map bigger than GTA V?
Yes. Rockstar says Leonida is roughly twice the size of GTA V's map, and nearly as large as GTA IV, GTA V and Red Dead Redemption 2 combined. Community estimates put it at 1.5 to 2 times GTA V.
What engine does GTA VI use?
An upgraded version of Rockstar's RAGE engine, with ray-traced global illumination, strand-based hair, muscle deformation, and other modern rendering features. GTA V's engine was built for 2013 hardware; GTA VI is built exclusively for PS5 and Xbox Series X|S.
Does GTA VI have a six-star wanted system?
Previews report a six-star wanted cap with more detailed tracking, including identification by appearance and vehicle, plus a Criminal Profile system. Rockstar has not published a full feature list, so treat this as reported rather than confirmed.
How long is the GTA VI story compared to GTA V?
GTA V's main story is about 31 hours. GTA VI's story is estimated at 50 to 65 hours — nearly double — structured in three acts across Leonida.
Is GTA VI coming to PC?
Not at launch. Rockstar has announced PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S only for November 19, 2026, with no PC date. GTA V took about 19 months to reach PC, and analysts expect a similar wait for GTA VI.
